Monday, February 9, 2015

"Human Capital" Starts At Birth?!

NO WAY ESEA! It Is Time to Stop Viewing Our Children As Economic Units!

Before this Reauthorization of the ESEA bill is voted on all Congressmen and Senators should read Soviet Pre-School Education, translated from Russian by Professor Henry Chauncey, published by Educational Testing Services in 1969. The Introduction was by Professor Urie Bronfenbrenner who was a strong advocate of Soviet Education. This important book was referenced in the 1968 Chicago Mastery Learning Program (Prof. Shulman and Sophie Bloom) which, after 12 years of Skinnerian individualized instruction, was a total failure. Education Week referred to it as a "human tragedy." (See page 79 of my book the deliberate dumbing down of america for the details.)

Anita Hoge's ALERT:

BEGINNING OF LIFE... EQUALS... CONTROL THROUGH WAGES AND RETIREMENT -- NCES GRANTS "WOMB TO WORKPLACE."

President Obama's 2016 budget includes a renewed push for the broad liberal priority of universal preschool. The budget would invest in a "preschool for all" initiative trying to expand access to high-quality Pre-K programs for 4-year-olds from poor and moderate-income families, and it includes $750 million in grant funding to help states create and expand such programs.

...Pre-K has become a rallying cry for liberals from Seattle to New York who believe that investing in young children from poor families may be the best way to narrow inequality as they grow up (it's also a good way to make it easier for their parents to work in the present).

Beyond inequality, though, there are a lot of arguments for backing universal Pre-K, many of which aren't particularly lefty. Early childhood education, for starters, is one of the most efficient places we can investment public money, with broad implications for the costs of social services that have seemingly little to do with school. If you don't want to spend a lot on incarceration or welfare or Medicaid, you should spend money on preschool. [emphasis added]

Investment in Birth to Preschool?! This is BOTH Obama and the Republicans trying to get their hands on our babies!